Pallets have been well-known for their use in the shipping and the storage industries for transporting various goods that are used in commerce. For many years the shipping industry has preferred to use wooden pallets. Presently, lightweight paperboard pallets are the preferred form for many in the shipping industry. A sample of the various pallets and paperboard structures used for shipping purposes are shown in the following United States Patents: U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,685,813; 2,576,715; 2,902,199; 2,925,947; 2,996,276; 3;302,593; 3,425,367; 3,480,196; 3,666,165; 3,952,672; 4,228,744; 4,390,154; and 4,972,782.
The problem with some of the above-mentioned conventional shipping structures is that they often have rough exterior surfaces which are likely to snag a person's clothes. These rough exterior surfaces also make it difficult to insert or remove pallets from a pallet dispenser. Furthermore, these shipping structures do not provide the structural rigidity and the simplistic design as offered in the present invention. It is desirable to have a pallet that offers the rigidity of a wood pallet while minimizing the weight of the pallet as much as possible. By minimizing the weight of the pallet, shipping costs are held to a minimum.
In light of the above-mentioned problems, it would be desirable to have a wrapped paperboard pallet that offers a dynamic strength that out performs paperboard pallets that utilize the same material under conventional designs. It would further be desirable to provide a wrapped paperboard pallet that is simple in design, cost effective, lightweight and is presented in a configuration having smooth external surfaces. The smooth external surfaces offer the advantage of providing advertising spaces, reducing the risk of snagging clothes or injury to employees, as well as to make the pallet easy to handle in a pallet dispenser. Additionally, open sided prior art pallets are prone to dislodgement and loss of internal structural components by material handling equipment which results in a weakening and potential collapse of the pallet. Because the present invention substantially encloses the internal structural components, they are substantially less prone to being dislodged and even should they become dislodged, they will still be contained within the structure thus reducing the likelihood of excessive weakening of the pallet. And finally, it would be desirable to provide a pallet that may be easily recycled.